Last week, Microsoft made the inscrutable decision to retire Wunderlist, the beloved to-do list app it acquired in 2015, and replace it with a new offering called Microsoft To-Do.

Wunderlist isn’t going away yet, but it’s no longer getting feature updates, and its long-term fate is sealed. In a blog post, Microsoft said it will retire the app after incorporating “your valued feedback and the best elements of the Wunderlist experience into To-Do.”

2016 was brutal year in the tech business. Ambitious projects sputtered out, beloved niche products became unsustainable, and there was at least one colossal corporate embarrassment. Take a look back at all the technology that died this year—then console yourself by imagining it’s still being enjoyed by David Bowie and Prince.

With last year’s corporate restructuring out of the way, 2016 was a year of rebuilding for Google and its parent company Alphabet.

This year, Google got much more serious about hardware, while placing big bets on artificial intelligence as the heart of its software. Products that fit this mission got revamped, while those that didn’t got axed or ignored. Read on for a review of what went right and wrong at Google in 2016.

When it comes to privacy, both Google’s Chrome OS and Microsoft’s Windows 10 take an “opt-out” stance.

By default, both platforms collect a variety of data about your usage, but the way they go about it is often different. While Microsoft presents users with a long list of privacy-related toggles, Google’s controls are less granular. Both companies, however, make you jump through additional hoops to disable the kind of personalized ads that help them turn a profit.

PCWorld recently broke down all the ways Microsoft grabs at your data in Windows 10, so it’s only fair we compare that to Google’s computing platform. Here’s how Chrome OS and Windows 10 measure up on privacy and data collection.

One of the best things about Chromebooks is that they’re built to last. Thanks to automatic security and feature updates from Google, along with a lightweight browser-based operating system, longtime users may find that their laptops run as well, if not better, than they did on day one.

But despite Chromebooks’ theoretical longevity, it’s possible for Google to cut their lives short. Per the company’s End of Life policy, Chromebooks and other Chrome OS devices are only entitled to five years of feature and security updates. After that, Google doesn’t guarantee that these systems will run safely or properly.

When you’re setting up a new or existing PC with Windows 10, Microsoft will offer to install the operating system with "Express settings."

Although Windows 10 Express settings will get you up and running quickly, that convenience comes at a cost: By skipping over custom settings, you’re agreeing to all kinds of data collection and behavior tracking, much of which didn’t apply in earlier versions of Windows.

Here’s our advice: Instead of blindly enabling Express settings in Windows 10, take some time to understand what you’re agreeing to. Click the Customize settings link (in tiny text at the bottom of the setup screen), and disable the options you don't want.

By now, most people who want Windows 10 on their PCs (and some who don’t) have probably installed the upgrade by now.

But there is at least one notable exception: If you don’t have enough free storage space on your hard drive, the installation won’t complete. This may result in a “Windows needs more space” dialog box, or one of several error codes (including 0x80070070 – 0x50011, 0x80070070 – 0x50012, or 0x80070070 – 0x60000).

Google’s Chrome browser has just reached a major milestone, hitting its 50th release.

For Google, it’s a moment for positive reflection. To emphasize Chrome’s might, the company points to the browser’s 771 billion page loads per month, 1 billion monthly active mobile users, 9.1 billion auto-filled forms, and 145 million malicious webpages averted. One might also point to Chrome’s ever-growing usage, accounting for 47 percent of all worldwide pageviews, including mobile, according to StatCounter.

Indeed, Chrome has become an indispensable tool for many web users, and has served as a leader in the browser world. It introduced the idea of limiting menu clutter around actual webpages, and popularized the syncing of bookmarks, tabs, and browser history across devices. After all these years, it remains PCWorld’s most highly-recommended web browser.

The free ride is over for new Google Fiber subscribers in Kansas, as Google drops the free “Basic Internet” option from its plans.

Google has offered the free plan since Fiber first launched in July 2012. Compared to Google’s $70 per month Gigabit Internet offering, the free plan was considerably slower, with just 5 Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds. It also required a hefty $300 construction fee, which Google waived for paying customers who signed on for at least a year of service.

According to Recode, that plan is now going away for new subscribers, suggesting that existing customers can hang onto their service for now. Google still offers free Basic Internet plans in Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, and is collaborating with the U.S. government on free broadband connections for public housing residents.

While the BlackBerry 10 operating system will live on for at least a couple more years, we’ve likely seen the last of its hardware.

Speaking to Gulf News and The National—two English-language newspapers published in United Arab Emirates—BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chairman John Chen said the company has stopped producing BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The company is now focusing on its Android phones, with the goal of being the “most secure Android smartphone for the enterprise,” Chen told Gulf News.

Should the FBI prevail in getting Apple to offer a backdoor for an encrypted iPhone, the agency may have trouble getting anyone to build it.

At least that’s the word from several current and former Apple employees—including security engineers—who spoke anonymously to the New York Times. Some said they’re refuse to do the work, or quit their jobs if necessary, rather than create what they believe is a major security compromise for all users.

As Microsoft auto-upgrades more PCs to Windows 10, some users are complaining that they weren’t adequately notified.

Reports of unwanted Windows 10 upgrades have been circulating for the past few days on Reddit and Twitter, after the last Patch Tuesday. These users say they never approved or initiated the upgrade, and were dragged away from their Windows 7 (or perhaps Windows 8) installs anyway.

This is all part of Microsoft’s plan, of course. Last October, the company announced that it would reclassify Windows 10 as a “Recommended” update from older versions starting in early 2016, at which point many more users would get the upgrade without explicit permission. That reclassification began on February 1, and auto-upgrades have been rolling out ever since. If complaints are reaching a higher volume now, perhaps it’s because the rollout is getting more aggressive.

After all, the Oculus Rift system alone will cost $599, and HTC just announced an $799 price tag for its Vive VR system. Those prices don’t even factor in the souped-up gaming PC you’ll need for either set, so either way the cost will exceed $1,500 to enjoy state-of-the-art VR at home.

But let’s say you are prioritizing price, rather than the vastly different experiences that the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive will offer. Here’s a rundown of how these two VR headsets compare on value, beyond just the sticker cost:

While Pichai noted that Google provides data access to law enforcement when legally required, that’s different from making tech companies enable hacking of customers’ devices and data. “Could be a troubling precedent,” Pichai added.

For months, some iPhone users have been running into a mysterious bug called “Error 53,” which can render some newer handsets unusable. Now, Apple has chimed in with an explanation.

With Error 53, some iPhone 6 and 6s users have found that their handsets no longer work after an iOS update. Stranger still, Apple’s support site barely documents the problem, lumping it in with other error codes that appear to be more easily resolved. As reported last year by The Daily Dot’s Mike Wehner, the only fix for Error 53 is to send the phone back to Apple and get a replacement.